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“This is definitely not a maidenly tea. The first steeping has notes of musk, cheese, and a surprising bitter bite for a puerh. Subsequent steepings are sweeter.
Update: As I’ve continued on...”
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“I finally broke down and had my last sample of this tea. And more puerh experience under my belt, I’ll say that I think this is a pretty damn good example. At 7 years old, this tea was...”
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“This tea wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. It has the typical flavors of a sheng pu: peachy sweet over a tobacco bitterness and a little smoke. The first infusion is tasty with a...”
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From Yinsheng Tea Company

This tea was on the reserve list of many collectors, 2005 saw it was sold in an auction for over 305 RMB ($41 USD) because it contained small volume of Banzhang tea leaves – which was considered as the best source of Puer tea. You could not get it in local Yunnan market anymore!

@Cofftea It’s an interesting tea. Puerhs frequently have an odd mixture of tastes and smells. Glad you got the teas safely.

@chrine Thanks! I personify everything actually. My car is named Carmen and she has a distinct personality (including a desire for Lotus Elise as a partner car), my lawn mowing robot is named Lawndo Mowlari and he has a personality. The vacuum cleaner robot is named Vir and he also has a personality. I just named the new Yixing teapot (more on this later). I think I just feel more comfortable in an animistic world.

Hi All things green. Several people have questioned the amount of steep time. I suppose we could ask others about how long they steep their raw puerhs. This is the advice I was given by the tea master I visited in Chicago and it has yielded good results so far. I rinse the tea first in boiled water. Then steep the rinsed leaves for around 30 seconds. If that seems like too little I add more time for the next steep. If too much, I make a note of that and do better next time. I generally end up with a very light steep for the first one and much stronger tea for the subsequent steeps. I note that some people do two rinses instead of one. That might be the right way to go. But for now this seems to be working.

I was surprised by the unexpected cheesy taste in the first steep as well. Puerhs are full of surprises.

Is it a blend of puerh and something else? If it is, I wouldn’t rinse it since then you will lose the other flavors of the blend.

If it is not a blend, then it is fairly simple. What puerh people are calling a “rinse” we would call a quick first steep that you don’t drink. Just submerge the teabag in boiled water. Let it steep for 10-15 seconds. (Don’t get anal about whether it is 10 vs 15 seconds. That really doesn’t matter.) Then toss out the water used for the quick steep. Then do your second steep as if it were the first one. That’s all there is to it. Or you can trust that the teabag puerh people already did a first steep/rinse for you when they made the teabag.

I’m planning to order a full-sized beeng of my favorite raw puerh. It is substantially different than what you have already tried. When it comes in do you want me to send you a bit with instructions for brewing?

@Carolyn, that’d be great! But understand that pu erh still terrifies me lol, so maybe just enough for one serving:) Yeah, I have a bag of Numi’s organic chocolate pu erh. I’m reading the ingredients and while the name of the tea gives absolutely no indication, it seems to be a chocolate chai/spiced pu erh because there is vanilla, cocoa nibs (duh lol), orange peel, nutmeg, and cinnamon, and… uh oh. rooibos. Great, now I’m even more scared of this lol. It does not say anything about rinsing in the steeping instructions.

I wouldn’t rinse a Numi tea. I would trust their tea blender. My experience with cooked puerhs blended with chocolate has been fairly good. So you may like this one. What seems to work best is when the puerh is a small part of the blend and just adds some dark earthiness.

I will be sending you a raw puerh with enough for one or two servings (in single-serving ziplocks) with very good instructions so that you have the best chance of having a good experience with it. You will have to wait until I get my beeng, though.

I finally broke down and had my last sample of this tea. And more puerh experience under my belt, I’ll say that I think this is a pretty damn good example. At 7 years old, this tea was surprisingly and quickly green-leafed, with a beautiful yellow soup. There’s a great blend of sizable leaves and rather small buds. Strong finishing bitterness followed light and delightful tropical fruit notes and just the right amount of puerh funk. It’s steeping like a champ (maybe somewhere near the 20th). Great stuff.

This tea wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. It has the typical flavors of a sheng pu: peachy sweet over a tobacco bitterness and a little smoke. The first infusion is tasty with a robustly bitter aftertaste. The second infusion becomes surprisingly more harsh, not really sure why. Turns much dryer and very shengpu-like. I was hoping to taste a little bit more age in the tea but that was not the case.